| Major Cast | |
|---|---|
| Kurt Russell | as Colonel Jack O'Neill |
| James Spader | as Dr. Daniel Jackson |
| Jaye Davidson | as Ra |
| Viveca Lindfors | as Catherine Langford |
| Alexis Cruz | as Skaara |
| Mili Avital | as Sha'uri |
| Leon Rippy | as General W. O. West |
| John Diehl | as Lt. Kowalski |
| Carlos Lachau | as Anubis |
| Djimon Hounsou | as Horus |
| Eric Avari | as Kasuf "Bani Wei!" |
| French Stewart | as Lt. Ferretti |
| Gianin Loffler | as Nabeh |
| Christopher John Fields | as Freeman |
| Derek Webster | as Brown |
| MPAA Rating: | PG-13 |
| Distributor: | Lionsgate |
| Release Date (US): | 28 October 1994 |
| Lifetime Box Office: | $71,565,669 |
| Foreign Box Office: | $? |
| Production Budget: | $55,000,000 (Est.) |
In the Prelude, Egyptologists working on the Giza Plateau in 1920 find a curious object: a ring-shaped structure about 40 feet in diameter, made of an unknown material. The young daughter of the lead Egyptologist, tagging along with her father, finds and pockets a golden amulet.
Cut to the present, when linguist Doctor Daniel Jackson is giving a lecture. His unorthodox theory that the pyramids of Giza were built over twice as long ago as generally accepted meets with derision. He's lost his research grant and his apartment; all he owns is in two suitcases he carries. Leaving the lecture hall, he meets an Air Force officer who informs him that someone wants to talk to him. The someone, waiting in a staff car, is Catherine, the Egyptologist's daughter. Now elderly, she knows all about Daniel's misfortune. She offers him a job and hands him plane tickets.
When Dr Jackson gets to the job location, he finds that his theory is correct. He finds out a great deal more. Indeed, this new job opens doors both metaphorical and real for him. They lead him to an adventure beyond imagination, and a life he could never have imagined.
Stargate is a feel-good film in which the good guys win against apparently overwhelming odds. Although nothing about it is played for laughs, it nevertheless contains a good deal of subtle humor. Most of this flows from Dr Jackson's eggheadedness — as when he approaches one of the planet's draft animals and is dragged off over the dunes when it spooks and its harness wraps around his foot. No such event is implausible enough to break the "willing suspension of disbelief" so essential to a science-fiction film, and they help move the plot along.
Technically, the film is almost perfect. The basic premises — that intelligent alien symbiotes inhabit human bodies, that they possess interstellar spaceships and have also mastered the use of the stargates, and that they use these things to maintain a despotic empire that once included Earth — are very well developed.1 The action is superbly plotted, with the attention to minor details (like that amulet) that marks a truly exceptional effort.
My Rating:
9 out of 10
Capsule review: It's not quite up to the level of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 version) or Forbidden Planet, but Stargate is an exceptional (and exceptionally enjoyable) film.
| IMDB Rating: 7.1 | Raters: 161,277 |
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